Pop might not be ready to shuffle off to retirement — yet

A candid Gregg Popovich has hinted that he might not be ready to retire quite as quickly as some might have thought.

During an interview with WOAI-TV sports director Don Harris Thursday night, Popovich refuted some of the hints that have him leaving coaching when Tim Duncan retires.

But after winning 61 games in the regular season — best in the Western Conference — Popovich sounded like he might want to keep coaching for a few more years.

“You do it as long as you go to training camp and the juices are flowing and you get excited about getting it started. And I know I’m like that because I was bouncing off the walls for weeks,” said Popovich, who turned 62 in January. “So, I’m pretty far away from wanting to sit back and have a pinot noir and watch a Robert Mitchum movie. I’m going to do it until the juice is gone, until there’s no juice.

“For right now. I love it. I’ll never have it better than this, so I’m going to enjoy it while it’s here.”

Popovich also said he doesn’t agree with critics who think his team can no longer contend for a championship.

“They won 61 games,” Popovich said. “So you can talk about that we’re old, we’re unathletic. We’re this, we’re that. All the things you are when you lose.

“When you win, you’re experienced. But if you lose, you are old and unathletic.”

The first-round loss to Memphis did show Popovich that he needs to consider all ways to improve the Spurs for next season.

“Will we look to add a free agent, will we work with our young kids, we will look to trade? We’ll try to do all of those things,” Popovich said. “Like we try to do every year whether we try to win a championship or not. To see if we can get better.”

The Spurs’ struggles against the Grizzlies were particularly baffling for Popovich. The Spurs became only the second No. 1 seed to lose in the first round since all rounds of the NBA playoffs were expanded to their current best-of-seven format.

That upset was marked by the Spurs’ inability to contain Memphis forward Zach Randolph and center Marc Gasol in the paint. Because of those struggles, some pundits have called for the Spurs to direct most of their off-season tinkering to improving inside.

“It’s not about bigger,” Popovich said. “We didn’t play very well … That’s what makes it difficult.

“Will the players that played in the playoffs this year play better next year? Or does that mean you say they didn’t play well so we are gonna get rid of them and we’re gonna bring in new guys? But it’s not about bigger.”

Popovich instead said his team needed to show better effort after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the second time in three seasons.

“What we need is for people to step up and play in the playoffs,” Popovich said. “We didn’t do it and we need to be healthy. There’s no reason why we couldn’t win that series and go on and play Oklahoma City and play Dallas, who we played towards the end of the year and beat them in Dallas with that same ‘short’ team.”

On April 6, Popovich surpassed Red Auerbach to move into second place on the NBA’s all-time list for wins with one team. His 15-season tenure is the longest current one among any of the four major American professional sports, trailing only Tony LaRussa of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Yet despite that history, Popovich said he would consider working for another team one day.

“I’d think about it. Yeah, I’d think about it,” Popovich said.

He quickly joked that his next coaching destination would be far apart from the NBA if given the choice.

“I was thinking more of Portafino, the Portafino Flyers,” Popovich said, creating an imaginary team in the Italian resort city. “If they could put a team in Portafino or Positano, I’m there.”

Popovich doesn’t sound or look like he was ready to leave the NBA. His coaching mentor Larry Brown was 70 when he left the NBA and is still making noise about returning. Don Nelson coached in the NBA until he was 69. Hubie Brown was 74 when he left the league.

Maybe that’s why lead assistant Mike Budenholzer apparently has become more open to consider starting his head coaching career elsewhere after his interview with Golden State.

Because Popovich likely will be patrolling the NBA sidelines for a few more years.